Branding is a way of identifying your business. It is how your customers recognize and experience your business. A strong brand is more than just a logo; it’s reflected in everything from your customer service, business cards, website, social media, marketing materials and advertising.

a) Who are you trying to attract? Who are your ideal clients? The kind of people you want to work with? Who is the type of person who needs your services? Who do you want to work with? What are they like? What do they like? How can you position yourself to attract those people?

b) Your Qualities: Why should people work with you? How are you different than others in your business? What are your strengths? Weaknesses? What type of projects do you want to work on? What makes you stand out?

a) Use Social Media to promote your brand: The ones who get social media understand that their customers want something beyond a product or a service. These people are aspirational. They want an extension of the brand that feels relatable and not salesy. The best brands on social media are the ones that make you forget you’re even on a company social account – until you find yourself purchasing that product or checking into their services.

“A busboy who worked for the Four Season told countless stories about how important the customer experience played out. A bartender once sent him to a corner bar to pick up a six pack of Rolling Rock even though it wasn’t on their beer menu. He knew a doorman who jumped in a cab to return a lost teddy bear to a kid at the airport. People spoke of the Room Service waiter who borrowed blueberries from another hotel at 3AM because they ran out. He was once sent out to get an emergency case of cranberry Perrier* and keep it in the back of the walk-in because someone heard it was Cher’s favorite. She stayed for over a week, but she never ordered it.”

2014 marks our 9th year designing together as Kandrac & Kole. Colleagues always say to us that they are envious of our partnership and wish they could find someone to share their design business. When asked what makes it work, it’s easy to explain. There are 5 key things we’ve always stood by.

1, Have mutual respect for each other – This trait to me, is the most important of all. We have deep admiration for each other’s abilities, qualities and achievements and never keep score or envy the other’s success.

2. Be flexible – Being able to have an open mind and push your ideas to the side every now and then isn’t always easy but two heads are better than one and like a marriage, you have to be able to give and take.

3. Be Supportive – We encourage each other to be our best selves and strengthen each other whether it be a business endeavor or a personal one.

Kelly serving in Guatemala. Read more about her many trips helping people in the area by typing in “Guatemala” in the search section of our blog.

4. Be honest – This one is tricky. Kelly and I both don’t believe in beating around the bush and keep very little to ourselves. We are very instinctive about each other and and are able to tell each other if we are frustrated or uneasy about something. We talk it through and move on.

5. Have a sense of humor – This is the next most important. Most people think the job of an interior designer is all “fun”. Our business is a very serious one and involves a lot of responsibility and has to be taken very seriously. The phrase “work hard, play hard” is our motto. We try to find the humor in most situations and try to keep smiling.

We feel infinitely blessed to be living our passion. Thank you to the outstanding people we work with, the service from our vendors, the clients who allow us to work in their homes and the brilliant design industry which we feel fortunate to be a part of!

We are looking forward to an exciting 2014 which will include attending the Design Bloggers Conferencein March, hopefully, a trip to Milan with Modenusin April (fingers crossed), designing luxury jet interiors, furnishing a beach house, more luxury kitchen and bath design, charity work and most of all, creating homes that are beautiful, functional and make our clients happy!!

2013 was a blessed year for Kandrac & Kole Interior Designs, Inc. I looked back thru my iPhoto and realized what a truly adventurous, exciting, scary and happy year it was!

Here’s a re-cap of 2013, a month by month highlight reel of one of our best years yet!

January

We kicked off 2013 with exciting news as we rebranded and introduced our new logo, website and blog. Thanks to Shari Miller with Little Blue Deer Design, the response was amazing!

February

You can’t succeed if you don’t keep learning so in February we attended Design Camp Atlantahosted by our talented friends Lori Dennis and Kelli Ellis. This two day event at the Fox Theatre was packed full of inspiration, learning, networking and catching up with designer friends from around the country. One of the highlights was meeting Barry Dixonwho was one of the keynote speakers.

We also began work on one of our most favorite projects to date – a rebuild/redesign of a historic commercial office space.

March

March was busy too as we worked tirelessly for one our favorite charity projects, Room Service Atlanta. This was our second go-round with the United Methodist Children’s Home and this time we were fortunate enough to design a studio apartment for a young adult woman. We were inspired by a set of vintage bathing suit prints from Wendover Art and the rest is navy and emerald history!

April

In April I was selected as one of nineStyle Spotters for High Point Market. Our team traveled to High Point, N.C. and scoured the market for the latest and greatest in design trends. We shared our finds on Pinterest and participated in a fierce competition for the best board. We broke the record for the most re-pins in Stylespotter history!

May

We bit the bullet in May and moved our office of three years from a historic 2nd floor walkup in Acworth to a new, charming house in Kennesaw. We’ve got plenty of space now with 3 offices, 2 workrooms, 1 conference room, 2 kitchens, 2 bathrooms and a storage room! Please come visit any time!

June

Intern Tracyjoined our team in June to spend the summer learning and working. We put her to good use since June was the month that we filmed our first HGTVpilot! We still can’t share many details because the show hasn’t aired yet but we will say that we had a whole lot of fun making over a master bedroom and bathroom in gray and green!

July

Summertime was in full swing in July and our team was jet setting across the country for their vacations and travels. Along the way I stopped in Memphis for theBrizo Blogger 19 reunionand to tour the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. What an honor to experience first hand the impressive partnership between St. Jude’s and Brizoand to know that one of our favorite vendors is supporting such a worthy cause!

My friend Rebecca Reynolds with a young patient on our visit to St. Jude’s. Photo courtesy of Brizo and St. Jude’s.

August

The Southern C conference came to Athens, GA in August so of course we had to attend! We met and mingled with some fun new friends (like this impressive young man named Aidan Hornaday – check out his website) and got some great business advice from a wide range of speakers!

September

September was memorable because we were FINALLY published in our first national magazine,Southern Lady. What a long awaited thrill! Our four page spread included several of our favorite spaces and shared some of our tips for creating “Friendly Spaces.”

Of course our design work never ends. We had a year of GREAT clients and fun, creative projects like these.

October

In October it was time to travel to High Point Marketagain, this time as sponsored bloggers. We were sponsored by two companies, Tomlinson and W. Schilling and got a priviledged behind the scenes look at their product lines.

October was also the month that we were nominated by lighting company Lamps Plus as one of 25 Best Home Blogs of 2013!

We installed another project that was a complete rebuild/redesign that we are very proud of!

Photography by Emily Followill.

November

In November, we were proud to send our Jr. Designer Lauren to Maine for the first ever Thos. Moser designer apprenticeship program. She spent 3 days at the workshop building her very own chair and learning about this all-american furniture company. Visiting a factory is the #1 way to really appreciate a manufacturer!

Always on the hunt to learn more, we signed up to attend the first ever U.S. Business of Design seminar hosted by the Canadian superstar business woman/designer extraordinaire Kimberly Seldon. We took 2 days away from the office to focus on all the things we do right running Kandrac & Kole and to brainstorm on the many ways we can continue to improve our operations.

Because the adventures of Kelly and Joann never cease, what do we do when the year is almost up and we are exhausted? We say YES to yet another HGTV pilot show! This one was produced by a New York based production company and should air in the next few months (so sorry – mums the word until then). This time, we designed an entire house and it was a transformation you’ve got to see with your own eyes!

December

It’s been an exciting and slightly crazy year here at Kandrac & Kole and that’s just the way we like it! Thank you for always coming along for the ride. We are excited to show you what’s up our sleeve for 2014!

What is the top thing we’ve learned in the past 8 years of being in business that has contributed to our success?

EDUCATION!!

A couple of weeks ago we attended the “business of design” seminar that teaches professional development to designers, decorators, stagers and stylists with Kimberley Seldon from Toronto, Canada. She is an interior designer, magazine editor, keynote speaker, broadcast personality, and author. The event was held at the beautiful Insidesign showroom in Atlanta.

As a matter of fact, over the last 8 years we have attended the following:

Attended numerous events to hear keynote speakers at ADAC (Atlanta Decorative Arts Center). Learning from interior designs, editors, and other design industry leaders that we look up to has definitely inspired us and taught us to be better designers!

One event we are hoping to attend in 2014 is Modenus Blog TourMilan – This includes visiting the Salone Internazional del Mobile and includes a lifestyle tour with visits to wineries, cooking classes and the Italian countryside in addition to fabulous design at the Milan fair and many events within the city (fingers crossed)!!

Modenus, founded by Veronika Milleris an interior design resource and interior design blog with a curated collection of interior design products, directory of interior designers and so much more. Check it out here!

What was interesting for us at our most recent seminar was that Kimberley said to us that when it came to design, she felt that many of us could make homes beautiful, but what clients really want are for projects to be on time and on budget.

Kelly and I looked at each other and said “we’ve been doing this for 8 years and never mentioned it”!! – So let it be known that not only will we make your home BEAUTIFUL, we’ll make it THOUGHTFUL, FUNCTIONAL & GUARANTEED ON TIME AND ON BUDGET!!